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Pugliese Capriccioso, Take 2

Pugliese Capriccioso, Take 2

Back in October, 2011, I baked a pugliese-type bread I enjoyed a lot. (See Pugliese Capriccioso) I gather from various TFL comments, a few other bakers have baked from my formula with good results. However, I wanted to bake this bread again using a more authentic biga rather than a liquid levain and at a somewhat higher hydration. Today, I did.

Biga Naturale Ingredients

Wt (g)

Baker's %

AP flour

48

100

Water

24

50

Active starter (50% hydration)

29

60

Total

101

210

The day before baking, mix the biga.

Ferment for 6 hours at 78ºF.

Refrigerate overnight

Final Dough Ingredients

Wt (g)

Baker's %

AP flour

375

75

Fine durum flour

125

25

Water

400

80

Salt

10

2

Biga naturale (50% hydration)

100

20

Total

1010

202

Note: The biga consists of 67 g flour and 33 g water. Thus, the total flour in the dough is 567 g, and the total water is 433 g. Therefore, the actual final dough hydration is 76%. Likewise, the actual salt percentage is 1.8%.

Method

Take the biga out of the refrigerator and let it warm up for about an hour.

Mix the water and flours to a shaggy mass, cover and autolyse for 20-60 minutes.

Sprinkle the salt over the dough and add the biga in chunks.

Mix at Speed 1 for 1-2 minutes until the ingredients are well-mixed.

Mix at Speed 2 for about 8 minutes. The dough will be quite slack. It will clean the sides of the bowl and form a ball on the dough hook, but a large portion of the dough will still be on the bottom of the bowl.

Transfer the dough to a well-floured board, form into a ball by stretching and folding.

Place in a lightly oiled bowl with a tight-fitting cover.

Ferment at 78ºF for about 2 hours with a stretch and fold at 50 and 100 minutes.

Pre-shape into a ball and let the dough rest for 10 minutes to relax the gluten. (This wasn't much of an issue. The dough was extremely relaxed and extensible.)

Shape the dough as a tight boule and place it seam-side down in a floured banneton.

Place the banneton in a food-safe plastic bag or cover with a damp towel. Proof the boule at 85ºF until the dough springs back slowly when you poke a finger into it. (About 2 hours)

45 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 490ºF with a baking stone and steaming apparatus in place.

Transfer the loaf to the baking stone, seam-side up, steam the oven and turn the temperature down to 460ºF.

After 15 minutes, remove the steaming apparatus. Bake for another 30 minutes or until the loaf is done. The crust should be nicely colored. The internal temperature should be at least 205ºF.

Leave the loaf on the baking stone with the oven turned off and the door ajar for another 10 minutes to dry the crust.

Transfer the loaf to a cooling rack. Cool completely before slicing.

The dough was even more slack than the last bake, and it spread significantly when transferred to the peel. However, there was very nice oven spring. The boule ended up with about 4 times the height it started with. The folds did not open up like the last bake. This may have been partly due to longer proofing, but I probably sealed them too well in tightening the boule when shaping.

I would describe the crust, crumb and flavor as essentially identical to my first bake of this bread: Crunchy crust, cool, sweet, chewy crumb. Perhaps a subtle nuttiness from the durum flour. Pretty darn delicious! This bread is a strong contender for the list of breads I bake frequently.

That's a real beauty David. I have been fascinated with this bread ever since I saw a picture of it in The Bread Bookby Linda Collister and Anthony Blake, however I have never got round to making it. They also describe the crumb as chewy. Their recipe contains olive oil. I think the Durum is an inspired touch and must make this loaf really special.

In my perusal of my baking library, I found tremendous variation in formulas for Pugliese. Some had oil, some didn't. Some were very high in durum flour, some had none. I may try this bread with a higher percentage of durum next time. I may also try an even higher hydration version. Lots of possibilities.

Great looking bread as always....my question for you is what do you suggest if you are not fortunate enough to have a dough proofer? If I can't proof at the higher temperature should I just proof longer, or should I attempt to get my oven to hit the desired temperature and proof inside after shutting it off?

I don't think the proofing temperature is so critical. At a lower temperature, you would need to proof longer. Remember: Let the dough tell you when it's ready to bake.

One technique I've used is to heat a mug of water in the microwave until it boils, then put the dough or loaf in their, leaving the mug of water in place. I find I can get the microwave up to about 78 degrees F that way. You can also make a proofing box from an inexpensive styrofoam ice chest generating heat with a light bulb at the end of an electrical cord or with a bowl of hot water. If you search TFL on "proofing box," you will find a number of suggestions.

I have actually tried the microwave trick in the past, but right now I'm in the process of replacing my microwave. Anyway most likely I will just stick with the longer proof times until I buy a proofing a box at some point. I just baked your San Joaquin Sourdough last night and actually let the dough retard in the fridge for about 35 hours instead of 20 due to my schedule. I will post about it shortly so you can see my result. The bread tastes great and has a nice crumb similar to yours. It kind of went crazy with the oven spring but the end result is pretty good.

Hi David,I am consistently impressed with the gorgeous crumbs you achieve in your breads.I was curious to know the definition of 'capriccioso'; I found a definition online that describes 'capriccioso' in musical terms as 'lively and free'.You may have been intending to mean 'whimsy' in naming your bread, but after reading your description of this loaf's oven spring, maybe 'lively and free' applies as well!:^) from breadsong

I am going to have to reread your description several times for that is EXACTLY the look of my favorite artisanal Pugliese I used to buy in Houston. Thick crust, glassy web/matrix. Absolutely mouth watering!

Ooh fun! Thanks for this - I'll give it a go (as one of your fans, your original pugliese is definitely one of my "house favourites"!)

I've not managed to get the seam-up expansion working too well - I think there must be a different way of shaping to get this - perhaps more flour on the surface? I'd love to hear any suggestions on how to get this to work better!

Re amount of durum, I've tried (with the original recipe - ish): 23% of flour, 25%, 35%, 30% - no higher, as I find it quite hard to get hold of the durum flour (Natoora in the UK do this mail-order, but minimum order (of all items) is around £80, so I can't do this too often! The durum soaks up the water a lot, but it's not sticky I find, just soft and fluffy dough...

What fun! I think this has just jumped to the top of my list of "things to try" - this weekend perhaps!

Re. shaping: I think I would try a tight pre-shape then just an "envelope type" fold and gentle rounding up for the final shaping to get the folds to open up. I've delveloped such a habit of tightening the boule in final shaping, I have to consciously work on this.

Re. durum: I find durum does absorb a lot of water. It makes for a less elastic and more extensible dough. If I increase the durum, I would also increase the hydration, but I'm not sure by how much offhand.

If you do make this bread, please let us know how it turns out for you.

I just found this blog of yours on this beauty of a bread and am wanting to give it a try but have a question too. I am wondering why the starter is called a biga.....I am used to a biga being made with IY as Peter Reinhart describes it in WGB. Simply a firm pre-ferment with IY. Do the Italinan bakers call a firm starter made with sd a biga as well?

Or does it have to do with retarding it overnight in the refrig. before being added to the final dough?

I'm not sure of the real definition of a biga, but it is what Italian bakers call their prefments, and they are generally firm. They do have a couple different terms for a wild yeast biga, including "biga naturale." I think that's the term Carol Field uses.

by the pictures of the crust and the crumb as well as the proofing and baking upside down with no slashing. Who would have thought upside down would be so good? I just had to try it with my usual modifications of your examples, 50 g each WW and Rye replacing some of the AP. I like that anyone can make this bread in half a day or so too. I turned out very well and it has made it into my top 5 bread list that I have baked to date - above 2 of you other breads I have had the pleasure to bake in the last month. Sadly, my top 5 has about a dozen breads on it but your SFSD and San Joaquin are also on my short list with this one. Thanks for all your generous development work David - it has changed my bread making for much the better. Couldn't be happier with my take on your bread.

I used this recipe about a month ago at my girlfriend's aunt's house in the Verona, Italy area, and it was a huge hit. I'm actually told they are still talking about it. I did modify it a bit, using a mix of Manitoba and normal Italian 00 for the AP flour, but otherwise I left it unchanged. I wasn't able to get anything near the beautiful, thick crust you achieved, but I was relatively close to the rise and crumb. I didn't use steam (didn't want to scare anyone)and lacked a stone, because we'd rushed to her aunt's house down the street to bake it after last minute technical problems at her mom's house.

I'm curious about how you mix the biga naturale. Generally a commercially yeasted biga is mixed loosely so as not to overdevelop the gluten too early, but I learned the biga naturale as an actual dough, fully mixed. Just to double check, which method do you use?

Place the seed starter in a 6 cup bowl on a scale. Add the water and dissolve the starter by beating with a dough whisk. (You can use a fork, a spatula or your fingers.) Add the flour and mix until the flour is thoroughly wetted, i.e., there is no dry flour. I do this step starting with a silicon spatula and end using my fingers. Transfer to a clean container that is big enough to permit tripling in volume, cover it and let it ferment.

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